


Just a Little Noise

by NotWhoYouThink131



Series: Little Hamilton [9]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Aaron may or may not have PTSD, Caretaker! Hercules, Caretaker! Lafayette, Daddy! Thomas, Fireworks, Kind of fluff at the end, Little! Aaron, Little! James, Non-Sexual Age Play, holiday story, little! John, non-binary Lafayette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-08 12:30:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11646600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotWhoYouThink131/pseuds/NotWhoYouThink131
Summary: "Fireworks?""Fireworks."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was supposed to start this story by July 4th but oops I'm slow and easily distracted. So, imagine it's still around the Fourth of July.

“Fireworks?” Aaron raises an eyebrow.

“Fireworks.” Thomas grins, holding up a slip of neon paper with large letters written across it. “James is so excited because it's the first firework show our housing development has ever done, so we don't have to drive all the way across town to see them this year.”

“James doesn't seem like the type to enjoy loud noises like that.” Aaron says. He remember when he took his little Theo to see the fireworks for the first time, and how scared she was of the loud explosions. She sat on his lap and watched the fireworks from the safety of her father’s arms until she was almost 12. God only knows how little James handles that kind of mental stress.

“Oh, he’s not.” Thomas says. “And neither am I, but when he gets really Little, he loves the bright colors and the pretty designs.”

“How do you get him past the noise?” Aaron says.

“I usually have him wear headphones.” Thomas says. “This year he wants to try to go without them, so we’ll see how it goes.” He looks at the paper again. “It’s July 4th, starting at 9:50. They have rides and stuff too, if we wanna go to the festival before the show.”

“Why do I need to know all that?” Aaron says, raising an eyebrow. “Is this your way of inviting me along?”

“Yeah, if you’re free.” Thomas says. “I hope you don’t mind me asking last minute.”

“It’s still a few days away.” Aaron says. “It’s not really last minute.”

“Well, you know what I mean.” Thomas pouts. “Um… Would you want to do rides and stuff?”

“Why would I want to do that?”

“Well, maybe you don’t.” Thomas shrugs. “But maybe… Little Aaron does.”

“What- Oh, no.” Aaron crosses his arms. “This is not going to be an opportunity to make me Little! I will not be seen in public like that again.” His cheeks quickly flush and he turns back to what he was writing.

“It wasn’t that bad last time,” Thomas pouts. “Was it? We had fun at IHOP.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Aaron pouts. “This event is going to be in a highly public location, and I refuse to be seen like that by people like your neighbors. You’re lucky if I even decide to go.”

“Okay, okay.” Thomas says. “You know I’m not going to force that on you.” He hands Aaron the paper. “Just, here. You can text me if you change your mind.” He puts his hands up and steps out of the room, quickly returning to his own office.

Alexander looks at Thomas over the edge of his laptop. “He doesn’t want to go?”

“He said he’ll think about it,” Thomas says, looking at his screen.

“You know,” Alexander says. “I’m sure John would like to go with you and James. He loves fireworks, and he can even ride rides with James. It can be a fun little play date.”

“We’ll see.” Thomas says. “If Aaron goes, I don’t want John to go.”

“Why not?”

“I just feel like Aaron’s not ready to be co-caretaker to kids like James and John.” Thomas shrugs.

“But you said he did so well with James?” Alexander leans back in his chair.

“Yeah, but John’s different.”

“Sure, my kid’s the different one.” Alexander grumbles.

“I just don’t want Aaron to feel like every time he hangs out with us, there’s going to be Littles everywhere.” Thomas says.

“Well, I’ll ask Hercules if him and Lafayette want to go. If they decide to take John along, and he just  _ happens _ to get Little-”

“I swear to God, Hamilton,” Thomas groans. “You are insatiable sometimes.”

“Great, so I’ll text them!”

“But I wanna wear my teddy bear onesie!” James complains as Thomas struggles to get him dressed. “I don’t wanna wear this!”

“I know, Madi,” Thomas whines back, pulling his arm through a sleeve. “But you gotta wear some big boy clothes tonight. You know we’re gonna know some people there, and I don’t want-.”

“I don’t care if they see me.” James pouts, trying to pull away as Thomas forces his arm through the other sleeve..

“You don’t, but big you does.” Thomas sighs, finally getting the T-shirt over his head. He groans with relief when James doesn’t immediately take the shirt off and throw it. “So you gotta look at least a little grown-up today, okay honey?”

“John gets to wear his favorite clothes!” James whines loudly. “He told me himself, he’s wearing his special hoodie!”

“Well, John doesn’t live here, buddy~!” Thomas whines back. “We rarely ever see him, so the neighbors can think whatever they want of him.” There is a loud rapping on the door downstairs and Thomas pulls James to his feet. “How about this? We can get ice cream if you’re a good boy tonight and don’t complain too much. We’ll even come home and change into your teddy onesie.”

“Yes, Daddy.” James shoves the collar of his shirt into his mouth as Thomas leads him to the living room and sits him on the couch.

Thomas hears the loud rapping again and quickly goes to open the door. “I hear you, I hear you.” He swings open the door, ready for whatever kind of affectionate greeting Lafayette feels like giving him this time, but when it doesn’t come, it takes him a moment to understand why.

Aaron is standing patiently on the porch, head cocked to the side at the sight of Thomas’ blue tank top. “Nice.” He says sarcastically, commenting on the “Sun’s out, Guns out” motto written.

“Thanks,” Thomas says. “I thought you weren’t coming?”

“Well, Theo and Philip decided they would go out and do something today,” Aaron shrugs. “And I didn’t really want to be alone, so… Is it too late to come along?”

“No, not at all,” Thomas says. “Um, John and his gang are coming along, is that okay?”

“O-Oh…” Aaron makes a face as Thomas leads him in the house. “Well, uh…”

“Aaron!” James squeals when he sees his friend enter the room. He reaches for Aaron and grin widely when Aaron pats his head.

“Hi, little one,” Aaron smiles. He turns back to Thomas. “When is John getting here?”

“Any minute now,” Thomas says.

“Hm…” Aaron looks down at his feet.

“What’s wrong?” James frowns. “You look sad.”

“I was just…” Aaron frowns. “Nothing.”

“Was you gonna be Little?” Thomas asks.

“I wasn’t sure,” Aaron says. “I mean, I don’t have to-”

“John’s Little too!” Thomas blurts. Aaron blinks at him a few times. “So uh… If you wanted to be…”

“My God Thomas.” Aaron says after a moment of stunned silence. “I hope you don’t tell other people about me like that.”

“I haven’t told anyone about you.” Thomas says, shaking his head. “No one knows.”

“Good.” Aaron nods. He hears a car pull into the driveway and clears his throat. “Let’s keep it like that, shall we?”


	2. Chapter 2

“So we found Li’l Man a romper that he likes,” Hercules says as John nearly crashes through the door, easily sliding around Thomas to get to James. When the two sees each other, they make an amalgamation of screams and gurgles as John nearly tackles James to the ground and the two start wrestling. “So we was able to opt out of the TMNT hoodie this time.” He sees Aaron out of his peripheral vision. “Burr,” He nods to him.

“Hello, Hercules-”

“Aaron’s here?” Lafayette nearly pushes Hercules out of the way and peek their head in. “Hello, Aaron!”

“Hello, Lafayette.” Aaron tries to chuckle, but it sounds more like a cringe than a laugh. Lafayette scoops the man up into a breath-taking hug, and Aaron grunts softly to voice his discomfort.

“I know, I know, no touching.” Lafayette sets him down and waves their hand dismissively. “But I haven’t seen you around here in so long, I couldn’t help myself.”

Aaron lets out a small sigh. “I know you couldn’t.” He hears more sounds from the living room and peeks in to see James sitting on top of John, giggling as the boy thrashes around. “Are they normally like this?”

“Yeah,” Hercules says in a surprised tone. With the shock of Aaron actually being here, he completely forgot John was even in the other room. “Hey, Li’l man, come here. I want you to meet someone.”

James slides onto the floor so John can get free. Once he’s on his feet, John comes to the doorway, biting his lip nervously. He saw the Stranger when he first came in, but he hoped he wouldn’t have to meet him. He doesn’t like meeting new people.

“John,” Lafayette puts an arm around Aaron’s shoulders. “This is Aaron. He’s a friend of Thomas’. He’s coming with us to see the fireworks today, okay?”

“H-Hi,” John coos softly.

“Hello,” Aaron hums, waving at him. “How old are you, little one?”

“I’m three.” John says.

“Same age as James,” Thomas notes quietly. Aaron nods. “You excited, John?”

“Yeah.” John says, hiding his face. “Wanna see fireworks.”

“Aw,” Hercules chuckles. “Don’t get all bashful now, Li’l man.” He pats John’s head and the boy beams up at him.

“Well, are we ready to go?” Thomas says, pulling James to his side.

“Yeah, I think so.” Hercules says.

“Okay, we’ll meet you there, then.” Thomas grins. “I’m just gonna finish getting James’ bag packed and we’ll be ready.”

“A’ight,” Hercules takes John’s hand in his own and leads him out the door, Lafayette close behind.

Once the group is gone, Thomas closes the door and turns to Aaron. “Did you bring any of your Little stuff?”

“Yes…?” Aaron frowns. “Thomas it’s fine, I don’t think I’ll be Little tonight.”

“Okay, okay.” Thomas whines softly. “But I’m still putting your stuff in the bag.”

“Thomas, no,” Aaron frowns. “You’re not doing this.”

“Where do you have them?” Thomas starts patting Aaron down. “In your pockets?” When he feels something in Aaron’s jacket pocket, he quickly yanks it out. Sure enough, it’s little Jamie with Aaron’s pacifier clipped onto his tale. “Great, and your cup?” Thomas hands the stuffed animal to James, who quickly shoves it into his diaper bag before Aaron can protest.

Aaron lets out a long defeated sigh and reaches into his pocket, surrendering the sippy cup to Thomas.

“See, that wasn’t so hard~” Thomas hums, zipping the bag up. “Everyone ready?”

“Yeah!” James pumps his fist, squealing. Aaron just nods quietly, picking nervously at his sleeve.

“Let’s go, then.”


	3. Chapter 3

The noise enveloping the group is almost like a carnival. There is the screaming of kids and the loud music playing over speakers and the sounds of excited chatter as the group walks down the midway. The smell of fair food is surprisingly fresh in the late evening air, and Thomas cannot wait to get James pumped for his favorite: Red velvet funnel cake. Last year, James didn't want to try it because he had a stomach ache, but he said he feels fine this year, so Thomas is more than happy to let him eat whatever he wants.

“Let’s go do the bouncy slide!” John screams, holding onto James’ arm. The boy agrees with an indistinct shrill noise and bounces on his toes. The two start to run off, to inevitably get lost in the crowd, and Hercules grabs John’s arm, making sure to shove his cell phone in the pocket of his romper.

“There you go, Li’l man.” Hercules pats the boy’s head and the two go running off.

“You let him have his phone?” Thomas raises an eyebrow.

“If they get lost, I can turn on the tracker and go find him.” Hercules says. With John out of his way, he now puts an arm around Lafayette’s waist, no longer worried of the little boy standing between them.

“That’s… Actually a really smart idea.” Thomas muses after a moment of thought. “Since James rarely leaves my side, I never thought of that.”

“One time we took John to the park near our apartment,” Lafayette says. “And he got distracted by some cat he saw near the playground and he ended up following it for about a dozen blocks, and it took us almost an hour to find him.”

“After that, we just let him carry his phone if he’s leaving our sight,” Hercules shrugs. “Easier that way.”

“Sometimes, I swear.” Thomas chuckles. “You guys are more fit to be his caregivers than Alex is. Alex would’ve lost him and had to call Eliza to look for him.”

“Oh, you guys aren’t his…?” Aaron blinks. “Hm. Didn’t see Alex as the caregiver type.”

“I mean, we pretty much take care of him full-time now.” Hercules says. “Alex works so much that he only comes to take John for special occasions.”

“Shame,” Thomas shrugs. “He should really take some time off and come hang out with Little John for a bit.”

“Ooo! Let’s get cotton candy!” Lafayette quickly disrupts the conversation to point at a vendor. Without warning, they take Hercules’ hand and pulls him over to the stand, bouncing on their heels and grinning widely.

Aaron chuckles. “They always get so excited about little things.”

“Yeah,” Thomas chuckles. He side-glances Aaron for a moment before saying, “Sure you’re feeling alright?”

“Yes?” Aaron side-glances him back, squinting. “And don’t try anything. I know you pull some weird voodoo stuff to get James Little on your command. Don’t try it with me.”

“Never even thought about it.” Thomas smirks. Lafayette and Hercules come back over with bag of multicolored cotton candy, both grinning widely. “Let’s go find somewhere to sit.”

The group makes their way to a large set of bleachers in the middle of the festival. On the field below, children are running around spraying each other with water guns and playing in a pool of foam. From the seats they pick, Thomas can see James and John in line for the inflatable slide on the other side of the field. He smiles when he sees that John and James are playing on John’s phone, taking picture, by the looks of it. He looks forward to the boys showing them the pictures when they get back over here.

“So what made you want to tag along, Aaron?” Hercules asks.

“Oh, I wasn’t planning on coming,” Aaron says. “But I didn’t really feel like being alone tonight, and Thomas had offered a few days ago, so I decided I’d come check out the show.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much how we chose to come too.” Hercules says. “John loves watching fireworks, but we didn’t want to pay to go to the big show downtown.”

“So when Alex told us Thomas wanted someone to go with him and James,” Lafayette says. “John was ecstatic.”

“I told him not to text you guys,” Thomas says. “I would’ve texted you, I just wanted to get all the details first.”

“Alex said you gave Aaron a flyer.” Hercules says. Aaron can see the smirk in the man’s eyes, but doesn’t bother responding when Thomas starts stammering for an answer.

“If you didn’t want us to come, Thomas,” Lafayette says. “You could’ve told us.”

“No, it’s not that,” Thomas says quickly. “I just… I…” He sighs. “Never mind. I’m glad you guys came.”

The conversation dies down as the group sits there, the amber light of the sunset shining over the festival. In the distance, Aaron sees James and John getting ready to race down the slide. He feels a soft twinge in his gut, but he quickly bites it back, fiddling with his sleeve. His eyes dart around for a moment, settling on the black duffle bag at Thomas’ side, and he cannot stop the whimper that escapes his throat.

“You alright?” Thomas whispers. Aaron peeks at him and notices that Hercules and Lafayette hadn’t heard the noise.

“Yes, I’m fine.” Aaron says quickly, shaking the twingey feeling out of his system. He feels his cheeks heating up, and he has to take extra precautions just to make sure his breathing is regular.

“You sure?” Thomas says. “Do you want your-”

“I’m fine.” Aaron snaps softly. He crosses his arm across his chest and look at his shoes, tapping his toes gently against the metal steps.

“Okay, honey,” Thomas says.

“Don’t call me honey.”

A voice on the loudspeaker announces the fireworks will start soon, and to clear the field. Kids start running towards the bleachers, soaked in water and covered in foam, their footsteps heavy against the bleachers. After most of the crowd of children has cleared out, Thomas sees James and John at the foot of the bleachers, scanning for their caregivers.

“Madi!” Thomas calls. James locks eyes with him and a grin spreads across his face as he grabs John’s arm and drags the boy up to their position.

“Hi, Daddy!” James grins.

“Hi honey,” Thomas chuckles. “Did you guys slide down the slide?”

“Yeah!” John says. “We were the last ones to slide before it closed!”

“Oooo~!” Lafayette giggles. “Aren’t you guys special~”

“I slid down faster than John!” James giggles.

“Only cause you cheated!” John whines, burying his face in Hercules’ shoulder.

“Did not!” James whines back.

“Okay, okay, don’t fight.” Thomas says. “I’m sure you both had fun, no matter who slid down faster.” The boys nod and he smiles. “There you go.”

The sun dips below the horizon, leaving the bleachers chilled and buzzing in anticipation. The group starts to scoot closer to each other, starving for a little more heat.

Thomas notices James is shivering more than the others and act quickly. He pulls out a large blanket and wraps it around James, making sure to tuck the boy in snuggly. The boy cuddles against Thomas, cooing softly. “Thank you, Daddy.”

“You’re welcome, Madi.” Thomas kisses his head, peeking over him to look at Aaron. The boy is playing with his sleeve and Thomas can see him glancing around nervously. Even in the dark, Thomas sees the boy’s eyes lock on James’ diaper bag a few times, and he reaches an arm around James and rubs Aaron’s shoulder. The boy looks at Thomas, his eyes wide and starry. “You okay?” Thomas mouths.

Aaron doesn’t respond for a few seconds, but he finally nods slowly. He feels a hand wrap around his, and he look down to see it’s James’ hand. The boy smiles at Aaron and moves around, extending the blanket out to Aaron, who shakes his head. “I’m okay,” He says softly.

“It’s gonna be cold.” James mumbles. “I don’t want you to be cold.”

“I’m okay, Bubby.” Aaron says softly. “I’m not little.”

“Yeah-huh.” James says. “You just called me Bubby.”

Before Aaron can retort, the national anthem starts to play over the loudspeakers and the crowd starts cheering. James gasps out loud and looks at Thomas, who nods at him and puts a hand on his shoulder.

“If you ever want your headphones, honey,” Thomas says. “Let me know.”

“I don’t want them!” James says, bouncing as he shouts over the music. “I love this!”

“Okay, baby.” Thomas chuckles, patting James’ head.

The first firework fires into the air and the crowd becomes silent, a loud squeal and thin red light racing towards the sky. Once it gets to its highest point, it explodes and bursts into a bright red circle. After that, there is a rapid fire of blue and white fireworks, causing the crowd to cheer.

Thomas keeps an eye on James, making sure he doesn’t get too scared. Several of the louder explosions cause the boy to flinch, but otherwise he stares up at the fireworks in awe, jaw slightly dropped. John squeals with each burst of color, bouncing in his seat. He feels Hercules’ arms on his shoulders, trying to keep him still, but he doesn’t bother paying attention and keeps bouncing, squealing with each explosion.

A soft whimper at James’ side pulls his attention away from the fireworks. The bleachers are pitch black, but each burst of color illuminates him and his friends, and he quickly finds the source of the crying.

“Aaron?”


	4. Chapter 4

“Aaron?”

Aaron registers that it’s Bubby who is talking, but that doesn’t make him feel any better. Now that Bubby sees he’s crying, it just makes him cry harder. Soon the others will know he’s crying, too. The air smells like gunpowder and his vision is so blurred by his tears that he doesn’t even see his Daddy suddenly kneel in front of him.

“Aaron?” Daddy says. Aaron barely hears him over the explosions, but he feels Daddy’s hands grab his shoulders firmly. “Aaron, look at me.”

Aaron quickly blinks away all his tears and sniffles loudly, his body shaking. He doesn’t dare look over Daddy’s shoulder, but he knows people are staring at him. Daddy’s friends. Bubby’s friend. They’re looking at him, he can feel it. They think he’s a big crybaby now.

“Aaron, what’s wrong, honey?” Daddy says. “Why are you crying?”

Aaron shakes his head furiously, trying to lean away from him. He’s causing a scene. People are staring, he needs to stop.

Another round of fireworks start to go off and Aaron cannot hold back a shrill scream as he covers his ears and starts sobbing. His brain feels all fuzzy and he finds himself struggling to breathe as his vision clouds again. He hears something that sounds like voices, but he cannot understand them over the explosions.

Suddenly, everything is silent.

All he can hear at first is the blubbering of his own sobs, but once he realizes he no longer hears the explosions, he is able to regain control of his breath. He bats away tears again and realizes Daddy has placed Bubby’s headphones on his ears. Over Daddy’s head, he sees more explosions of color reflecting off Daddy’s wildly curled hair; a faint shaking of the bleachers under his feet is the only sign that there is any noise outside of his head.

“Daddy…” Aaron murmurs. Daddy shakes his head and taps his ears, signaling Aaron would be unable to hear his response. Instead, he just places a kiss on Aaron’s head and says something with his lips pressed against his forehead. He can’t hear what Daddy’s saying, but he still feels safer nonetheless.

When Daddy leans away, Aaron’s face starts to flush. Hercules and Lafayette are both blinking at Aaron with wide and confused eyes. Beside them, John is clinging to James’ arm with one hand and biting his fingers on the other. He feels his eyes start tearing up again and  Daddy quickly wipes the tears away, shaking his head at Aaron. Aaron keeps sniffling, but he wipes his face on his sleeve and looks back up at the sky. The colors continue to burst across the sky, and without the noise to scare Aaron, he quickly finds himself lulled into wonder.

“He okay?” Hercules looks at Thomas. Aaron looks up at the sky innocently. The headphones on his ears are obviously making him feel better about the fireworks, and he stopped screaming, so they must be doing their job.

“He’s okay,” Thomas says. “He’s just having a moment.”

“He was screaming,” John says.

“John, I’m sure he’s fine,” Thomas says. “I’ve never seen him do this-”

“Bubby’s scared of the fireworks!” James says. “That’s why he didn’t want to be Little!”

“Wait, Aaron’s a Little, too?” Hercules blinks and looks back at Aaron, who has turned his attention to the group again, blinking at them all. “Really?”

“Uh.. Yeah,” Thomas says. “I don’t think you were supposed to find out, though, he’ll be pretty upset when he comes back around.”

Aaron gently grabs Thomas’ shoulder and gets his attention. When he looks at Aaron, he notices the boy chewing on his shirt collar.

“James, can you get Aaron’s binky?” Thomas says. The boy nods and starts digging in his diaper bag until he pulls out the small skunk and binky, passing them to Aaron. He unclips the binky from the skunk and clips it to his shirt, sucking away at it.

“Is that his stuffie?” John squeals, snatching the skunk from him hands. “It’s so cute!”

“John, we don’t take things from others,” Lafayette says when they notice Aaron’s lip quivering, staring at John with betrayal. “Give him back his stuffie.”

“But it’s so cute!” John whines, passing the skunk back to Aaron. The boy clings to it and glares passively over the stuffie’s head at John. “You don’t gotta be mad, Aaron!” John whines. “I was just playing!”

“He can’t hear you.” James says. The fireworks start getting more rapid fire as the finale begins. People around them are cheering and no one seems to notice Aaron’s meltdown. That’s good, I guess, but Thomas honestly finds himself surprised.

Thomas holds Aaron’s free hand for the rest of the firework show, letting the boy squeeze his hand as he stares up at the fireworks in a mystified haze. Even with the binky in his mouth, Aaron somehow manages to drool a small bit down his chin as he watches the sky, and Thomas cannot help but be intrigued with watching him.

The air is full of gunpowder by the time the show ends, the fireworks ceasing suddenly, leaving the air still and silent. People start leaving the stands as the national anthem starts playing over the loudspeaker.

When the bleachers are almost empty, Thomas finally reaches for Aaron, gently taking the headphones off. “Hey, buddy.” He says softly, careful not to disrupt him too much. The glassy look in the boy’s eyes shows that he is still far too unstable to be Big, and Thomas doesn’t want to push him.

When Aaron gets his hearing back, he almost gets dizzy as he looks around at the group. He hears a soft ringing, almost like tunnel vision, but for your ears. He has to shake his head a few times to regain his full ability to hear, and the first thing he does is look at Daddy. “I’m sorry.” He says quickly.

“No, no.’ Thomas says, shoving the headphones back into the diaper bag. “None of that.”

“You could’ve told us you were scared of fireworks, bubby!” James says, wrapping his arm around Aaron.

“I-I didn’t think I was,” Aaron says. “I’ve never been scared before!”

“Yeah, when you were Big,” Thomas says, standing up. The others start to get up and file out of the arena. “But you’ve been lingering somewhere in the middle since you came to my house, so I’m not surprised to see you get all Little and scared  now.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that.” Hercules says. “John gets scared when dogs bark.”

“Don’t tell him that!” John whines loudly. He pouts and hides his face in Lafayette’s shoulder.

Aaron giggles breathily. He peeks around nervously at Daddy’s friends, but no one even seems to be bothered by him as they walk back to their cars. On the way, they stop so James can buy cotton candy, and he comes back with an extra large bag, offering some to Aaron. As they walk the rest of the way to the car, Aaron and James split the cotton candy as Hercules and Thomas ramble on about stuff Aaron is too Little to understand.

Aaron hastily waves at Hercules and his group as he climbs into the car and everyone goes their separate ways.

“Here’s your lunch, Burr.”

Aaron peeks over the edge of his computer to see John standing in the doorway, holding his hands behind his back. It was common for John to show up and bring food for Alexander, and everyone loved to text their orders for John to pick up along the way. He’s almost like an intern in a way, running around town to get the others what they want. “I told Thomas not to order anything for me.” He shakes his head and looks back at his screen.

“Oh, I know.” John says, setting a paper bag on Aaron’s desk. “It’s not from Thomas. It’s from us.”

“Us?” Aaron looks at the bag with suspicion as John grins and skips from the room. “John, ‘us’ who?”

“Have a good day, Aaron~” John hums as Aaron hears the elevator close. He groans softly and opens the bag, gently dumping out its contents.

The thing that catches Aaron’s eye before anything else is the baggie of chocolate chip cookies. Also in the bag was a pizza Lunchable and a Capri Sun.

Aaron sighs softly, feeling his cheeks flush as he pushes the childish lunch to the other side of his desk, trying to focus back on his work. If this was some form of mockery John was poking at, Aaron wasn’t going to indulge in it.

After another 15 minutes of working, Aaron finds himself growing distracted, his glance turning to the food every few seconds. He knows it’s close to his lunch break, and no one was here to see him eat it, but the pettier part of him contemplates if he wants to go somewhere else for lunch instead. Then he sees it the next time he glances at the lunch.

On the back of the Capri Sun, drawn in several colors of permanent marker, is a picture of Jamie the Skunk surrounded by little fireworks, wearing a small set of headphones. At the bottom of the picture is a heart and the letters, “H,L&J”.

Aaron lets out a deep sigh and pushes his keyboard away, giving him room to eat his lunch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took to long, I wanted to end it on a good note instead of something awkward like they usually end and I struggled on the last part (With Aaron in the office) for almost 2 weeks by itself. I hope you enjoy my super late 4th of July story, and the actual series will continue as normal from now on!


End file.
